About Danny

Daniel Martin is Founder and President of Cross River Connections (CRC), which offers training and consulting in the field of personal, organizational and social change through the art of Dialogue, which he defines as skilled interaction for creative outcomes.

A native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Dr. Martin was educated in Ireland, Italy, and the U.S.A. He worked in Kenya for a number of years before moving to the U.S. in 1984. In this country he has been a Director of an institute for global issues, a religious consultant to the UN Environment Program, a speaker and retreat leader in the field of ecology and spirituality/ethics, and a consultant to many organizations.

This is the formal bio. Perhaps the following reflects more accurately who I am.

Three situations have done much to shape the way I look at life: Belfast, where I was born a Catholic into a fractured Protestant-Catholic world; Kenya where I worked for a number of years as a Catholic priest; the U.S. where I wrote a Ph.D. under Thomas Berry who spoke of a new foundational ‘creation’ story or myth for an emerging new era. All of these situations were about the challenge of differences and the need to work with them in order to allow something new and better to emerge. Each of them thrust me out: out of the situation but also out of myself. I left Belfast, I resigned from priesthood, and I let go of much of what I believed about the world. Now I find myself being thrust out again: into a different focus, and into a different sense of my own role.

Today, it seems to be about honing down, distilling something from these experiences, holding the differences again to allow a new world to emerge. I’m getting a little more used to all this transition which now feels to be the way life is. I think there is a way of living in the world that involves honesty, openness and some basic skills, like listening.

Today I write about this, lead retreats to help others explore it for themselves, facilitate, consult, train and coach people in their efforts to live their own constantly changing lives with honesty, openness, and skill.